Knit fabric having thickened wales.



R. W. SCOTT.

KNIT FABRIC HAVING THICKENED WALES.

APPLICATION FILED AUG. 1. I916 1,267, 126. Patented May :21, 1918.

w m m m J5 p H 3 TJ U UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

:aonnnr w. sco'r'r, or nos'ron, Massncnusnrrs, assrenon, BY MESNEassrenunn'rs, r0 sco'r'r & wn-Lmms, mconrona'rnn, a conronarrorr ormnssacnusnr'rs.

KNIT FABRIC HAVING THIGKENED WALES.

Specification of Letters Patent.

Patented May 21, 1918.

Application fled August 1, 1916. Serial 1K0. 112,592.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I ROBnnrW. Soon, a citizen of the United tates andresident of Boston, in the county of Suffolk and State of Massachusetts,have invented new and useful Improvements in Knit Fabrics HavingThickened Wales, of which the followingis a specification.

his invention relates to the manufacture of thickened wale structures inknit fabrics.

Objects of the invention are to provide for hosiery, gloves or otherknit articles or fabrics an element of ornament or use consisting ofisolated, raised or thickened wales which lend themselves well to theformation of clock effects and mock-seams in hosiery and underwear,ridges on the backs of gloves, and the like; and to provide for themanufacture of fabrics havin such thickened wales upon the usuallIlStI'llr ments, without interfering with the steps employed for makingordinary fabrics. Further objects are to provide a structure of thisnature adapted for machine-knit fabrics and capable of being begun andended at any desired parts of the knit article without interference withthe making of the article or the operation of the machine, and toprovide a knit structure for this purpose which shall be relativelyopaque and dense and which does not weaken the fabric to which it isapplied, as well as a method of making said structure. Heretoforetwisted or tucked stitches have been employed for some of the uses towhich my new fabric is adapted but such structures necessarily containewer stitches or .stltches under more strain than the body of thefabric, and for these reasons are weaker underlongitudinal'stress thanthe remainder of the fabric. Such structures are little or no thicker-than the fabric to which they are applied, and are nearly' astransparent as the dy fabric, so that a thick or opaque mark fabric doesnot result .from their employment. For the above and other purposes myresent invention comprises ap lying to a fa ric and interknittmgtherewit an additional continuous yarn.

" placin in a transparent 1 In the accompanying drawings,

Figure 1 is a dia m showing a back or inside view of a fa ric providedwith one form of the new structure;

Fi 2 is a similar view illustrating intermittently thickened wales forclose imitation of a looper-sewed seam;

Fig. 3 is a similar view showing a single thickened wale;

Fig. 4 similarly shows an intermittent form ofthe structure of Fig. 3;

Fig. 5 is a view of a stocking containing the new structure;

Fig. 6 is a diagram in plan of a circle of knitting needles illustratingone manner of x the thickening yarn for interknitting with the fabric;

Figs. 7 and 8 are diagrams in plan showing the relation of thethickening yarn to certain needles;

Fig. is a diagramdevelopment showing one series of movements of suchknitting needles cooperating with guides for the 'other desired part ofa tubular stocking with a longitudinal thickened is provided mark orridge 2. In the position mock-seam,

shown the mock-seam 2 imitates a looper seam characteristic offlat-fashioned hosiery. As shown 'in Fig. 1, certain Wales 6 of thefabric 1, 'in addition to the yarn 7: of which the fabric is composed,include an auxiliary thickenin yarn. t connecting two or more wales b anfloated between them in floats y, 3; on the back or inside face of thefabric. One or more normal wales a may intervene between the wales b,and the floats may be under any desired tension, the presence of thefloats projecting the intervening wale or wale a in a ridge on the faceside of the fabric. The yarn t as shown in Fig. 1 is interknit withitself and accompanies the structural yarn I) in each wale b, the floatsy extending from-loop to 100 in the same course, and the floats y extcnfrom a loop of one wale b in one course to a loop of the other wale b inthe next following course. The wales b preferably are formed of longerstitches than wales a.

I prefer to form the seam 2 as follows: Assuming as the instrument ofmanufacture a movable latch-needle knitting machine, the knitting yarnis may be formed into the fabric 1 as usual by a wave 'w, to, Fig. 9, ofadvance and retraction in the nee dles, the body-yarn is supplied b ayarnguide is being taken in the hoo s of the needles n durin theirretraction, as shown after their partial retraction at w" and beforetheir complete retraction. Layin the thickening yarn t on the needles n,n nitting the wales b, in addition to the yarn is is now provided for,so as to take the yarn t into the hooks of these needles prior to theirretraction at w. For this purpose needles n, n are isolated from theother needles to enable them to receive yarn t. The method ofdistributing the yarn t for this result is independent of the particularmeans for knitting or for isolating the said needles. The yarn t may beof any suitable color or kind. To accommodate the yarn t in stitchesalso containing the body-yarn and in some cases as explained below athird yarn, the needles n for the wales b may be formed as shown in Fig.10, so that the distance from their butts to their hooks is less thanthat of the needles n.

One procedure comprises winding or wrapping the yarn t continuously inone direction about the isolated needle or needles n, 11.. To producethe fabric shown in Fig. 1 the operation includes thereafter arrangingthat run 3 of the wrapped yarn lyin on the face or hook side ofseparated nee les 'n, n, behind the backs of the interveningnormally-knitting needle or needles forming wale a, as needle n in Fig.7. One way of doing this is to permit the rotationof the needle group n,n, 'n' relatively to the needle cams and the yarn-feed devices to wrapthe yarn t about needles at, n while these needles are elevated abovetheir neighbors, and thereafter to move the needles into a normalposition in line with needle 1:. and the remaining needles n, the form,arrangement or position of the needle or needles n and the needles 1:.bein such as to secure passage of the float y ehind the needles n.Referring to Figs. 6, 7 and 8, Fig. 6 is a diagram showing fourpositions in one relative revolution ofa needle n' representative of theoup n, n, n with res ect to yarn gllliide t for the am i. It will eobserved .t at yarn t if ree to take any {a dles it wil virtually berotated with respect to any narrow group of needles, as n, n, n, or asingle needle n as illustrated by aryarns, whereby to form ositionacross the circle of nee rows of, Figs. 7 and 8, in a direction contraryto the rotation of the needles relative to the yarn ide in direction 2.Either the needles or t e yarn guide may be on the movable part of themachine.

The needles n, n may be projected or otherwise isolated at any part oftheir rotation to receive the. auxlliary yarn while passing yarn guide ipositioned in any desired relation to the knitting cams or other activeknitting devices.

The effective rotation around the isolated needles of the yarn tindicated in Figs. 6, 7, and 8 will not be interrupted if theseneedlesare retracted to knit, or to arrange the yarn t behindintervening needles, at an part of the circle swept by the needles suclently separated from the yarn-guide to secure first having brought theyarn t above and within the circle of needles n, in the position of achord of the circle n. The yarn t may be fed through any usual yarntake-up device permitting the yarn drawn ofi' by-the receding needle 11.to be recovered at the approaching passage through the remainder of therotation of the needle a and yarn guide 8'.

One convenient arran ement of relative movements for laying tlie yarn tis illustrated in Fig. 9. All the needles are ad vanced at w and theneedles n, 1:. may be permitted to retain all or a part of this advance,asat w .(for instance by providing them with shorter butts than theother needies and by employing a cam formed to partially retract t eother needles 1:, n", as bv having a cut away ortion upon which theneedles n. n enter so that at this point they stand above the otherneedles. Yarn guide t which may be movable, delivers the yarn t at thisoint above the hei ht of the normal need as n, n. The nee les n, n,which may be provided with the usual forward hooks standing in front ofthe front faces of their shanks, will upon pas sage at or come intoalinement. The needle at here passes in front of yarn t, Fig. 7, all theneedles t receiving the main yarn is, and knitting on full retraction.Needles n then have in. their hooks both yarn is and yarn t, and ontheir shanks loops of both the double-loop structure of wales b.

The needles n, n ma' in some cases be normal needles, but suflicientlyseparated by not being ad'acent needles to permit leadin needle n to 'tand advance before the fo lowing needle n" is retracted to its maximum.This ermits the wrappedyarn t safely to be knitted without breakagewithout special provision for thedouble-yarn stitches, and whilemaintaining tension on the floats y, 3

It will be understood, however, that several needles n may be arrangedside by side when provision is made for elongating their stitches, asabove explained, or by other suitable means.

The formation of the thickened place or seam 2 may be begun and ended atdesired predetermined points by moving the yarn guide t into and out ofoperative position, the difl'erent movement of the needles n, 10. havingno eflect on their normal operation to knit yarn is, or the needlemovement may be altered by changing the form of the cam path, as byproviding movable cams.

In some cases I prefer to intermit forming the thickened wales at one ormore courses a: at intervals of a few courses apart, as shown in Fig. 2,to impart a puckered appearance to the mock-seam 2. This ma be doneeither by suspension of feeding o the yarn t or by causing the needles nto be normally operated when passing the seam ing yarn guide duringknitting the course an. In either case the yarn t forms a mum at theback of the fabric until the needles or the auxiliary yarn guide 25' areagain positioned to cause needles 1:. to take yarn t.

My invention comprises fabrics having a thickened mark only oneneedle-Wale wide, which may as shown at b in Fig. 3 be continuousbetween beginnin and end, or be intermitted, as shown in t e course as"with respect to the Wale b in Fig. 4. In these cases, a single needle71.. will be utilized as above dBSCI'lbBd, the yarn if being wrappedabout it by isolating the needle, as at 'w Fig. 9, and by the relativerotation illustrated in Fig. 6, the method being otherwise the same asabove.

The described structure is well adapted to be formed in a stocking Shaving one or more spliced areas, as the high s lice 72. shown above theheel in Fig. 5. s well known to those skilled in the art, such splicedareas as the area h are formed of the body-yarn k and an additional yarn8, Figs. 1, 3 and 4. There is little or no room in a k-nit loop of theusual texture for this additional yarn, and it is customary and usuallynecessary toincrease the length of stitchat such portions of the fabricas are spliced by the addition of the yarn 8. My new structure, ineachof its forms, but as specifically illustrated in Figs. 1, 3 and 4only, is adapted to .be made in or through such a spliced area byincreasin the length of stitch in wales b as above ascribed, in order topermit the double yarn stitches of this area to accommodate a knit loopof the third yarn s.

It will be observed that the needles n for the wales b are among thoseto which the splicin yarn s is applied, by which arrangement t e needlesn are always permitted to pass the splicing yarn ide of the usualmachine arrangements w on splicing is being done, withoutthe float,extending across the circle, of the yarn t encountering the float of theyarn s, the yarn s then being withdrawn by the splicing device from theneedles which are not to receive it to float diametrically across thecircle at a time the needles n are in a part of the circle at which thefloat of yarn t can not encounter the float of the splicing yarn 8. Whenthe splicing yarn s is finally withdrawn, it is as usual cut and clampedleaving the yarn t free to make the described movements.

Wherever the additional yarn t is interknit with body or splicing yarn,the body yarn preferably is in plating relation to the additional arn,which appears on the back or inside ace only of the fabric.

I do not herein claim the invention common to this application and myapplication Serial No. 112,591, filed August 1, 1916, [Letters PatentNo. 1,256,834, granted February 19, 1918,] claiming the genus of whichthe resent disclosure is one species.

at I claim is:

1. A knit fabric formed of a body-yarn having therein two spaced needlewales only connected by an additional thickening yarn free fromengagement with one or more intervening wales and alternatel interknitwith the body-yarn in one and in another of said spaced wales, wherebyto form a thickened longitudinal mark, an intervening wale of the bodyfabric being rejected in a ridge on the face sideof the fabric.

2. lmit fabric formed of a body-yarn and having therein a longitudinalmark or ridge comprising wales of knit loops consistmg of the body-yarnand a continuous additional yarn, said yarns being in plating relationin said wales, and floating between said wales in tensioned floats onone face of the fabric only, the tension on said floats being sufiicientto project the face of the fabric from the body at said wales.

3. A knit fabric formed of a body-yarn having therein a longitudinalmark or ridge comprising wales of elongated or slackened knit loops eachconsisting of the bod -yarn and a continuous-additional yarn, sai walesbeing connected by floats under tension wherebg to project a part of thebody-fabric from t e face thereo 4. A knit fabric formed of a body-yarnhaving therein a longitudinal mark or ridge comprising wales ofelongated or slackened knit loops each consisting of the body-yarn and acontinuous additional yarn in latin' relation thereto, tensioned floatsof sai addltional yarn extending in opposite directions from Wale toWale at the back of the fabric. 5. A knit fabric formed of a bod -ya,rnhaving a longitudinal thickened mar projecting from one face of thefabric comprising needle-wales of the body-yam in- 1,2e7,1ee

tel-knit with an additional yarn extending yarn, said additional Jamextendin in tenin tensioned floats from Wale to wale on the sionedfloats from w e to Wale on e other other face of the fabric, the tensionbeing face of the fabric, said additional yarn at suflicient to projectthe face of the fabric predetermined intervals being floated over 5 fromthe body at said wales. an intervening course without beingmter- 16 6. Aknit fabric formed of a body-yarn knit.

having a longitudinal thickened mark pro- Signed by me at Boston,Massachusetts, jecting from one face of the fabric comthis twenty ninthday of July, 1916. rising needle wales in which there are knit 10 oopsof the body-yarn and an additional ROBERT W. SCOTT.

